Angers, 1556. Jean Rabec lost his tongue—physically and irrecoverably. This loss he suffered, not through carelessness or disease, but at the hand of Roman Catholic bishops, hellbent on stopping him singing. Not that sixteenth century bishops enacted brutal punishments on anyone who sang off-key. Their problem with Rabec went beyond his choral capabilities to matters more spiritual, specifically his Huguenot convictions, for which he would shortly burn at the stake.
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